Michigan

Adam calls his family's cottage in Colon, Michigan his happy place.  This was the last stop before we headed out into the wild blue wonder.  We used this time to relax, enjoy the quiet, and detox from TV.  The lake the cottage is on is special because there are no houses on the other side and it is fed by the river.  Also, this summer brought 4 swans to the lake.  They were big and beautiful and I am mad I didn't get a picture of them.    Adam and the neighbors said that they have never seen them there before.  Kinda cool.

On my exercise adventures, I came across some interesting animals.  I am pretty sure the donkey below thought to himself, it is 100 degrees out here, that lady is crazy!

Michigan is home to a ton of deer.  They were in the road all of the time.  I had this thought as I was running that one of them was going to get spooked and jump out right into me like they do cars.  Luckily, I was making enough noise with my extra wide size 2E bunion tennis shoes, that they all jumped out and ran away before I got to them.

This is a rabbit

The restaurant across the street from the cottage has really nice walking trails and the reflecting pond below.

I really love the spruce trees up north.  They remind me of Christmas and the Berenstain Bears.  I have loved both since I was a kid.  I don't know why they make me think of the bears, because they didn't live in this kind of tree.  ???

On a perfect afternoon, Adam and I ventured out for a canoe trip.  A neighbor dropped us off up river and we loaded up on bug spray.  The mosquitos were thick.  Thank you Deep Woods Off for saving my flesh.  There was one tricky spot where we got stuck on a some downed trees, but the master rower got us out no problem.

Excited to get our adventure started and see some sights we have never seen before, we loaded Simon in the truck.  A neighbor had told us that since we were already in Michigan, we might as well head up to the Upper Peninsula and see the Mackinac Bridge.    

Adam plans our course

Ever the good samaritan, Adam moves a downed tree out of the road

Turkey sandwiches for the road.  Gypsy style

The journey to the U.P. brought us through some really quaint towns.  All were centered around rivers and of course the giant Lake Michigan.  I love Traverse City.  I definitely will be vacationing there sometime in the future.  There was so much to see.

We stopped in Charlevoix for dinner.  Trying to stick to the no chain restaurant rule on this trip, we pulled into  Guiseppe's.  The outside did not look impressive at all, and I was a little skeptical.  But, they had the most amazing Italian food I have ever had.  The breadsticks were made fresh and incredible.  My mouth is watering  just thinking about them again.

We finally made it to the bridge just before dusk.  It took a long time to get there because we did not take the interstate.  We were happy to see all the towns though.

My camera did not like the subtle light of night fall

You can't tell, but the bridge is behind us

This moose was right past the bridge on the Upper Peninsula side.  We love America and being patriotic so it warranted a picture.